


Marked

by adiwriting



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/M, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-30
Updated: 2016-04-30
Packaged: 2018-06-05 12:58:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,917
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6705364
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/adiwriting/pseuds/adiwriting
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In the years away, Oliver grows to depend on the random messages his soulmate leaves on his skin. They give him hope during his dark time away. But Oliver doesn't deserve her... he's not sure he ever will.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Marked

**Author's Note:**

> Written to fill a prompt for peillimoops on Tumblr.

It starts off innocent enough. Laurel just wants to know if they are each other’s soul mates before she goes any farther with him. He agrees because Laurel Lance is hot and he’s not going to turn down the opportunity to possibly get into her pants. So she takes out a Sharpie and writes her name on Oliver’s forearm, but nothing happens. When he offers to double check her entire body for an identical mark, she agrees and Oliver is pretty sure he now knows what heaven tastes like. Tommy is right. Sex is better than drugs. 

At 16 years old, he could care less about the idea of soul mates. The only thing that matters is the amazing escape he feels every time Laurel lets him bury his pain by burying himself in her. So he doesn’t think twice about letting her write her name all over his body each time they have sex. After all, if it’s what Laurel feels she need to feel comfortable, who is he to deny her? 

****

It doesn’t happen often, but on nights when the sun begins to rise and neither Tommy nor Oliver have gone home with anyone else, they take to talking about their potential soul mates. 

Their family has raised them to believe that such notions are silly. Fate and destiny are for the weak willed. A fairy tale to give hope to the hopeless. They’ve been taught they don’t need it. 

However, in the early hours of the morning, when both of them are too drunk to have their guard up, they wonder together. They take out markers and write to their so-called beloveds. The messages always start out sweet enough, but they are drunk and high and inevitably, Tommy always ends up writing something derogatory on Oliver. Asking Oliver’s soul mate if she enjoys being on her knees, or how sexy she looks when she’s riding her man. 

Oliver’s soul mate never writes back in moments like this, but he’ll always wake up several hours later to the most precious cursive writing that states, ‘don’t forget to drink a lot of water and take some Advil for the headache.’ 

He wonders what she must think of him. The boy who allows his girlfriend to write her name all over him. The boy who allows his best friend to talk to her like she’s nothing more than a paid prostitute. 

Waking up from the world’s worst hangovers with her adorable messages to get better, remind him that he doesn’t deserve her. 

It’s that single thought that allows him to continue sleeping with Laurel and laughing when Tommy writes messages onto his arm. After all, if she realizes what a disappointment he is now, before they even meet, maybe they can both spare themselves a whole lot of pain later on. 

****

He’s been on the island for three months when he finally remembers that he does have a connection to the outside world. He’s got his soul mate. It’s her adorable chicken scratch reminding herself to pick up an extra motherboard showing up on his hand that reminds him.

It takes him awhile to get his hand on a pen, but when he finally manages to, he writes out the words, “Stranded on Lian Yu. Send help!” onto his arm. 

He’s nearly gutted when the words, “You don’t deserve her,” are his only reply. 

****

For the 5 years that Oliver is away, he cherishes every one of the messages that appears on his skin. She has a tendency to write code on her arm early in the morning. Late at night, she writes reminders of things she has to do in the morning. Every once in awhile, she’ll jot down phone numbers and he has to force himself not to strangle somebody from the intense feeling of jealousy it brings him. For all he knows, they could be numbers for the electrician or power company. It doesn’t mean she’s dating other people… 

Not that he could blame her. His mind often goes back to that single message. ‘You don’t deserve her.’ It’s the only hateful thing that he’s ever gotten from her, though he deserves far worse. For years, she’d been covered with the black ink of another woman’s name all over her skin. She would have had to cover up the derogatory comments Tommy would write about her sexual skills. 

He doesn’t deserve her. It’s that thought alone that keeps him from writing back to her on the rare occasion she reaches out. On those rare nights where his soul mate asks him what his name is. When she asks if he’s okay, because she hasn’t heard from him in awhile. 

He selfishly takes comfort in every message she sends his way, but he doesn’t allow her the same. She deserves better than him, especially now that he’s been lost to the darkness. It wouldn’t be fair to write her back and give her hope. 

Oliver convinces himself that he wants nothing more than for her to move on and find somebody who can actually make her happy… She deserves that. 

****

Oliver doesn’t realize that it’s Felicity at first. It’s not like she shows off her body a lot. She’s always covered up by cardigans and pencil skirts, and she’s always typing, so he never sees her handwriting. 

Until he does. 

She’s signing a check to pay her rent and he recognizes the little slant of her ‘i.’ The way she loops her ‘o’ is so incredibly familiar that he can barely breathe, because it can’t be possible. Felicity can’t be his soul mate. 

Except she is. He tests out the theory later that day by drawing a smiley face on his hand. Not even two minutes later, she shrieks and stares at her hand like it’s the most puzzling thing she’s ever seen. 

“What is it?” Diggle asks her. 

Her response brings him chills. 

“I thought he was dead,” Felicity says, her voice barely a whisper. There’s so much hope in her voice. So much relief… 

And really, she’s not wrong. He was dead. Maybe not physically, but emotionally. He’s been dead for a long time. 

She deserves so much better. Now that he knows who she is, he can say that with 100% certainty. Felicity Smoak is the light, and he is the dark. He can’t let himself have her, no matter how tempting it is to allow himself to fall in love with her. 

****

Oliver wakes up to Sara writing her name on Oliver’s body with a sharpie and he has never been more livid with a person than he has in that moment. Even when she asks him, completely innocently, “Haven’t you always wondered if we were it for each other?” he can’t calm his temper.

Of course she would wonder. With everything they have been through together, it’s a wonder the idea of soul mates never came up earlier. But Oliver had always hid his marks from her on the island and Sara admitted, her soul mate never writes her. It’s only natural that she would think they were possibly each other’s soul mates. On paper, they sound perfect. They’ve both got enough darkness within themselves and shared trauma to understand each other in a way nobody else ever will. 

The only problem with that thought is, is that Oliver already knows who his soul mate is. And in any minute, she’s going to wake up with Sara’s name on her body. He doesn’t want to think about the kind of betrayal she’ll feel. He doesn’t want to know if she’ll be smart enough to put together the pieces… because it’s Felicity Smoak. Of course she’ll put together the pieces. 

Sara may be a common name, but Laurel isn’t. How many other men in Felicity’s life would have slept with a Laurel and a Sara? 

He doesn’t hear from Felicity at all that day. Digg informs him that Felicity has called in sick due to the flu. He wants to believe that, but the message on his arm tells him otherwise. 

‘Just be happy. That’s all I’ve ever wanted for you. If she can do that, then good.’

Oliver has gone through hell and back, but nothing makes him feel shittier than that single message. 

****

When Felicity starts dating Ray, Oliver expects to find his name all over his body in retribution, but he doesn’t. Felicity isn’t that cruel. That thought alone makes him feel even worse. He’s managed to break one of the most caring people in the world. His actions have been so awful, that his own soul mate would rather be with another man than the one fate had picked for her. 

Technically, that’s not entirely fair. He had asked her out, and she had said yes. He’d had his chance to be with her. However, life never works out in his favor and it turned out that being together… Being with her? It’s not possible. He can’t be the Arrow and Oliver Queen. 

So he’d told her they couldn’t be and she’d told him it was the last straw. That she believed in soul mates and true love, but she wouldn’t stand by and watch him continue to dishonor their bond anymore. 

Oliver had his chance, and now Felicity is with Ray… a man who lost his soul mate in the Siege, so there’s no hope that Ray will dump Felicity once he meets his own soul mate… 

Nope. He’s going to have to watch them be deliriously happy together for the rest of his life. 

And he only has himself to blame. 

****

Felicity has taken to sending him encouraging messages during those long weeks when he’s with the League. She writes them in hidden places where the League can’t see, reminding him of who he is and what he has to come home to. It’s those single messages that keeps his head clear while the League attempts to burn all traces of Oliver Queen out of him. 

****

The first night they are together, Oliver hands her a sharpie and tells her to write her name on him… to claim him as her own. She tells him it’s not necessary. They already know they are soul mates. Instead, she takes the marker and finds every single scar on his body. She covers each one with a message of hope and love. 

You are beautiful. 

You are brave. 

You are thoughtful. 

You are selfless. 

And the last one she writes — the one over the scar he’d gotten when Ra’s al Ghul drove a sword through him — says: You are worthy. 

When she caps the pen and puts it on the nightstand, she looks down at her own body, now littered in black ink. 

“Now we’re both marked,” she says, giving him a significant look. 

He’s never told her that he feels unworthy. He’s never explained that his scars make him feel dirty next to her flawless, pure skin. He’s never admitted to the reasons why he never wrote back to her on those lonely nights when she reached out for him. However, it’s clear that he doesn’t need to. She’s known all along. 

Felicity is his soul mate. The one person in the world who is supposed to know him better than he knows himself. He’ll never know what he did to deserve her, but after tonight, he’ll never deny her again. 

She is his light in a world of darkness. He wouldn’t have it any other way.


End file.
